Other library resource(s)

Borders and boundaries, commonly defined as the lines dividing distinct political, social, or legal territories, are arguably the most ubiquitous features within the field of political geography. Indeed, borders have become prominent topics of research for a range of scholars from across the social sciences and humanities. This burgeoning, interdisciplinary field of border studies covers a broad range of concerns, including state sovereignty, globalization, territorial disputes, trade, migration, and resource management, among other topics.

This documentary, directed by Mark Stucke, discusses the political situation in South Africa since the revolution in 1976. The film specifically focuses on how the people of Soweto are getting by in the extreme gap in wealth that continues to exist in the country.

For centuries, the sleepy village of Palagykomoroc was proudly Hungarian. Then the Soviets arrived and erected a border through the heart of town. Families were divided; the village was torn in two. And so it remains.

... Historically, political geography has largely concerned itself with the spatialities of the state, whether internal or external. In addition, early political geography often attempted to derive insights from the natural world, often leaving it open to accusations of environmental determinism. ...

From the McGraw-Hill Contemporary Learning series, the Student Atlas volumes combine full-color maps and data sets to introduce students to the importance of the connections between geography and other areas of study such as world politics, environmental issues, and economic development.

Introduction

A subdiscipline concerned with the study of the spatial dimensions of politics. Although sharing many of the theories, methods, and interests as human geography in general, it has a particular interest in territory, the state, power, and boundaries (including borders), across a range of scales from the body to the planet. ‘Politics’ refers not simply to the formal organization of political life through government, elections, parties, etc., but all aspects of social life involving governance or where some degree of contentiousness or conflict may arise. Interpreted more broadly, therefore, political geography can encompass all those ideas about the relationships between geography and politics extending beyond academic contexts (see anti-politics).

Political geography has meant and studied different things in different contexts. In the late 19th century it was partly synonymous with human geography as a whole. Friedrich Ratzel is credited with the first use of the term in his book Politische Geographie, in which he aligned non-physical geography with the study of the state in space. Mackinder similarly distinguished political and physical geography. The work of geographers in France, Germany, Britain, and the USA in exploring the geographical foundations of state power is now more commonly classified as geopolitics. Anxious to distance themselves from the German school of geopolitik because of its close links to the Nazi regime, prominent US geographers such as Isaiah Bowman and Richard Hartshorne described their work as ‘political geography’. But, actual empirical research in the field dried up, perhaps because of the taint of geopolitics, and theoretical advance halted. The main exception was work on boundaries and boundary disputes, which was a preoccupation of French and German geographers before the Second World War and of interest to British geographers in the subsequent phase of decolonization. In terms of theory, a notable exception was the work of French geographer Jean Gottmann who, like Hartshorne, tried to understand the relations between the modern state, territory, and identity. His recognition of the significance of iconography and the state idea prefigured later contributions.

In the 1960s, political geography was reframed in terms of political studies from spatial perspectives, with elections, boundaries, and subnational administrative organization among its subject matter (see electoral geography; spatial science). A core problem for example, was the effect of international boundaries on spatial interaction. The impact of the cultural and political upheavals across the world in the late 1960s was twofold. On the one hand, impelled by radical geography and informed by Marxism, feminism, and socialism, swathes of human geography became politicized, i.e. were more attentive to conflict and difference and prepared to challenge the existing order. In one sense, most if not all, human geography could be described thereafter as political. The specific area of a self-described political geography itself enjoyed a revival. The former focus on the state gave way to an interest in the world scale; for example, in Peter Taylor’s development of the world-systems approach, as well as the urban scale, in the work of Kevin Cox, Ron Johnston, David Harvey, and others. Issues of class, and later race, gender, and sexuality came to the fore. In France, Yves Lacoste founded the journal Hérodote (1976) to introduce French geographers to some of the radical ideas of the country’s new generation of social and political theorists. The leading journal Political Geography Quarterly (later renamed Political Geography) was founded in 1982, marking the recovery of the field. Thereafter, political geography generated and responded to the same currents as human geography in general, including postmodernism, post-structuralism, and post-colonialism (see critical geopolitics). To the long-standing interests in the state, power and boundaries, modern courses and texts in the field include sexual politics, citizenship, social movements, civil society, globalization, and environment. Indeed, globalization has reopened older debates about the relations between territory, identity, and boundaries. Wars in the Balkans, Afghanistan, and Iraq, and the related ‘war on terror’ have prompted a greater interest in violence, both state and non-state (see terrorism; war). Political ecology marks the overlap between political geography and a concern for nature, resources, and the environment. Given the significance of climate change, food security, and oil resources, political geographers have in some ways revived the preoccupations of their 19th-century predecessors for the physical environment, although without the trappings of environmental determinism.

In the Library's collections

To find items about political geography or geopolitics, you can physically browse the shelves in the call number range JC 319 through JC 323 on Berry Level 4 . Other books will be found in the D's, E's, F's,and J's.

When you search the online catalog, use the subject headings "political geography" or "geopolitics." Either subject heading will get you started. Don't forget about the related subject headings.

Introductory reading(s)

Territory is one of the central political concepts of the modern world and, indeed, functions as the primary way the world is divided and controlled politically. Yet territory has not received the critical attention afforded to other crucial concepts such as sovereignty, rights, and justice. ...

This is a revised and updated edition of a core resource for political geography. Focusing on the social and cultural while giving a systematic overview of the entire discipline, Joe Painter and Alex Jeffrey explain: Politics, geography, and 'political' geography: power, resources, institutions, and the history of the field State formation: classical views alongside recent work on governance and governmentality Welfare to workfare state: ...

Selected book titles

The creation of the European Union in 1992 reflected new economic, political, and cultural realities on the continent. The dissolution of national borders and the easing of transit restrictions on people and goods with Europe, have contributed to a radical rethinking of such basic concepts as national sovereignty and citizenship. In Europe without Borders, the authors bring together leading experts from the fields sociology, political science, geography, psychology, and anthropology to examine the intersection of identity and territory in the new Europe.

If you were to examine an 1816 map of the world, you would discover that half the countries represented there no longer exist. Yet since 1945, the disappearance of individual states from the world stage has become rare. State Death is the first book to systematically examine the reasons why some states die while others survive, and the remarkable decline of state death since the end of World War II.

Finding journal titles & articles

Our collection includes several journals which look at Political Geography. To find them, do the following subject search in the online catalog : "political geography periodicals." Cultural Geography is not a subject heading used in online catalogs. However, to see how many more titles there are, you can search in Worldcat. Use a subject search with the terms "political geography" and "periodicals." Below is a short list of some of the journal titles we have in our Library's collection.

Space & Polity is an international journal devoted to the theoretical and empirical understanding of the changing relationships between the state, and regional and local forms of governance. The journal provides a forum aimed particularly at bringing together social scientists currently working in a variety of disciplines, including geography, political science, sociology, economics, anthropology and development studies and who have a common interest in the relationships between space, place and politics in less developed as well as the advanced economies.

Use Geobase to search the geographical literature to find articles about political geography.

Keeping up with the journal literature

Want an easy way to keep up with the journal literature for all facets of Geography? And you use a mobile device? You can install the BrowZine app and create a custom Bookshelf of your favorite journal titles. Then you will get the Table of Contents (ToCs) of your favorite journals automatically delivered to you when they become available. Once you have the ToC's you can download and read the articles you want.

You can get the app from the App Store or Google Play.

Don't own or use a mobile device? You can still use BrowZine! It's now available in a web version. You can get to it here. The web version works the same way as the app version. Find the journals you like, create a custom Bookshelf, get ToCs and read the articles you want.